Social media is the newest marketing vehicle. Great! Yet some of those who are engaged in selling, social media training and marketing in general continue to shout the cries that this activity cannot be measured.

Credit: Hastac.ning

Baloney, a real big baloney! For unless something gets measured, it cannot get managed. So, yes Margaret, there are metrics for this newest messaging platform or vehicle.

What is interesting to note is these excuses use for not being able to measure the results from social media marketing efforts are about the same for many other initiatives or challenges in business. For example, how many times have you heard or maybe even thought that:

Far too many people as my friend Bill Napolitano has stated are playing Captain Wing It. These folks, as I have often said. “are spraying and praying their actions all over the place with the hope that something will stick.” No wonder they are like all the other gray suits and never will be a Red Jacket, someone who stands out in the crowd.

Take the time to read this great post by Amber and see where else you may be making excuses as to why you cannot get the results you want. Maybe you are not investing the time to determine the metrics, monitor those numbers and analyze them for any necessary course corrections. Remember, even Santa sometimes had to change his flight path.

3 Responses to “Yes Margaret There Are Metrics to Social Media & Beyond”

I so agree with the comment, “unless something gets measured, it cannot get managed.”

I am constantly amazed at the number of businesses that don’t have customer feedback systems or managers that don’t do 360 reviews and now, businesses that expend hours on social media each day and have no measurements to know if it’s worth it.

Too often business leaders rely on sales growth trends to indicate whether they’re doing the right things. Sales growth is a lagging indicator and if you don’t have other leading measurements to show what is moving the sales dial up or down, you’re most likely expending effort that could be spent better elsewhere.

Cindy – Thanks for the agreement and sharing your blog post as well. You may find an earlier post here of interest – You Cannot Outgrow Losses http://bit.ly/cQMN49 (also includes some free forthcoming webinars).